


Children of Kaine: The Lost, the Found, and the Lost

by KPenDragon



Series: Children of Kaine Saga [8]
Category: Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen, Mpreg, Other, Street Kids, Teenage Pregnancy, hiding from the law, intersex clone, no dating yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-10-28 09:25:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10828413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KPenDragon/pseuds/KPenDragon
Summary: Ben and Jessica start their investigation, but things start to get complicated when they happen to cross paths with Ben's old team.





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Free Comic Book Day everyone! Have a bonus update to celebrate the fun.

It was a new day, which meant there were about 20 different new ways for Jessica Jones to get into trouble, at the very least. The 18th precinct had closed down about a year and a half ago, but the records were still locked up tight. Ben was on lookout while she tried to pick the locks that barred the outside from taking refuge inside the police station, but as the minutes ticked on and the thing still fought against her attempts, her agitation just grew into frustration. And a frustrated Jessica Jones was not a happy Jessica Jones.

“Aw screw this,” she hissed as the third lock pick snapped in half.

“Something wrong Jones?” he asked over his shoulder, still standing at the foot of the steps, leaning against one of the statue columns at the base.

She grabbed the padlock and just yanked, it taking less than two seconds to snap in her hand. “Not anymore, c’mon.”

He gave one last cautious sweep of the street around them before he turned to climb up the steps to the door she held open for him. The snapped lock on the ground beside the door was an obvious eye catch, but he just decided to not comment on the girl’s lack of stealth and tact for now. 

As the door shut, the old police station became dark. The widows had long since been boarded up, being an additional deterrent to looters. Both teens took a moment to fish out their phones and turn on the flashlights on them, adding some much needed illumination to the room. Desks were left abandoned, their only job to collect dust and cob webs now. The scene was very reminiscent of those horror movies where people just up and disappear, leaving the world in mid motion empty.

“C’mon,” Jessica filled the stale silence, “The records room should be this way.”

Ben followed her lead, navigating through the rows of desks and past the desk clerk’s bench.

“You seem to know your way around here pretty well.”

“Yeah, well, starting off bar brawls were a lot more hazardous when I was involved…for the other guy.”

“Frequent flyer I take it?”

“Look some kids rent out the chair in front of the principal’s office; I had one in the juvie corner ok. Not a big deal.”

“I thought you said this place closed over a year ago.”

“It did,” she reached the door she was looking for, and instead of trying to finesse this lock, she just shoulder checked the door and popped it open immediately.

“How long have you been living on the streets?”

“Not important,” she brushed it off, but at the same time there was an underlying note of warning not to push that question, “You take the left, I’ll go right. Remember, we’re looking for missing persons reports between April and September.”

“I got it, I got it,” he waved her off, going to his assigned corner.

The boxes of files were just as dust coated as the bull pen had been, despite being in a separate room. Blowing the dust off had no effect, but brushing it away just sent it all into the air. The boy started coughing at that; the girl just rolled her eyes, already having her scarf from her neck pulled up over her face to avoid that problem. After the dust cleared from his lungs, Ben followed suit, covering his face with a bandanna of his own, and then pulled out the first box to start thumbing through.

This was going to take a while.  
\---  
Since S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy was ever expanding and the class roster constantly changing, someone had had the bright idea to make patrol assignments be a “grab bag event”, meaning you had no idea who you would be teamed up with for the day until the morning assignments. This was meant to encourage all recruits to learn how to work together, instead of sticking to their usual team cliques. Sometimes this worked well, sometimes this didn’t. Luke pulling Flash’s name for the day was good (while Doreen getting Triton…not so much…)

The two might not have hung out much while they were both at Midtown High, but now that they were both “wearing tights” so to speak, they meshed pretty well together. Not many could go toe-to-toe with the other in the combat simulator; and unlike Peter, Luke actually did understand Flash’s sports references. Plus, the flightless and webless Powerman made Agent Venom flex his muscles more, as was best noted by their chosen way to conduct their patrols; free running marathon dash across rooftops.

“You starting to slow down there bro?” the symbiote warrior snickered as he started to gain in their race.

“That black slime must be lowering your eyesight as well as your depth perception.”

“What does depth perception have to do with-”

He really should look where he was going, because before the question could even be asked, it was very harshly answered by the over hanging arm of a water tower. The symbiote warrior reeled back from that, his head ringing from the impact. Luke slowed, and then stopped when he realized his friend didn’t just pick himself back up to keep going.

“Hey, Flash man, you ok?”

“Yeah…”

No, not really. His spider sense should have kicked in to warn him about that right? Ok, he should have been watching where he was going, but still, usually the symbiote would like, turn on the cruise control to course correct when that was the case. This wasn’t the first time this had happened either; he’d had a few “misfires” in training sessions lately, but he was also quick to get back up from those, so no one ever really noticed (and if they did, they probably just wrote it off as “dumb blonde jock” reactions, or something like that).

“You sure man? That was a pretty hard hit.”

“Yeah, no, I’m good,” he shook his head, as if to clear it of any fog, “I’m thick headed remember. Ain’t nothing getting through this skull.”

Luck chuckled, “Well, you got most of that right I guess.”

Before either of them could suggest picking up their race, both their comms gave an alert. The message was the same on both; seems some S.H.I.E.L.D. security beacon set in a domestic location was tripped not too far from where they were currently.

“Looks like duty calls.”

“Oh man, how much you wanna bet it’s another rat that knocked over a bean can, or whatever.”

“Hey, it beats doing nothing.”

“You just say that cause you know I was gonna beat you.”

“Oh you think that do you?” Luke grinned.

“Uh yeah, if that pipe hadn’t clothes lined me from nowhere, I totally had you.”

“Then let’s settle this with a rematch. First one to the beacon gets the bragging rights.”

“And a smoothie.”

“And a smoothie.”

“Oh you are so on Cage.”  
\---  
They had gone through maybe 8 boxes in total when they heard the front door crash shut. Neither spoke, the looks they exchanged said it all clearly. Jessica moved to the door, peeking slightly through its crack, waiting to see who it was that would intrude on them. Ben tried to shove the box he was in the middle of back onto the shelf, minimize their presence, but as he grabbed his backpack he saw it; a box clearly marked with the dates in question. Thinking fast, he pulled the box out, and started just shoving what files he could into his bag. Jessica looked back at him, and for the life of her she wanted to call him a fool for doing that instead of actually getting out of here, but another crash from the bull pen made them both freeze.

“Watch it Venom, if someone is actually here, we don’t want to scare them off now do we?”

“Dude, it’s not my fault. The dust is like…slippery.”

“Slippery dust, really?”

The heroes weren’t exactly whispering quietly, but then again the place was completely empty so maybe the sound reverberated better. Either way, the two delinquents could hear them, and now knew they had to get out of there even more so.

Jessica looked back to Ben and motioned for him to hurry it up. He only had a quarter of the box, but they were really running out of time as it was. So he thrust the remainder of the box back on its shelf, and closed and shouldered his bag. He gave her the go ahead, she nodded her response. They needed to figure out their next move now, and fast.

“Why would Fury have a beacon in this place anyways? It’s just an abandoned police station?”

“Beats me. Three years with Fury, and I still don’t understand even half of what he does.”

A small crash to the west made both heroes turn. Luke swept with his flashlight, but found nothing.

“Go check that out.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Because you’re coated in the super goo that gives you dark vision.”

Flash mumbled at that, but he moved off to go check.

Jessica saw that as their opportunity, so she motioned for Ben to follow her quickly now. The two slipped out of the records room and tried to book it for back entrance. Unfortunately, as they ran, Ben stepped on a loose piece of debris, and though he didn’t fall or call out, there was enough noise and movement to catch Powerman’s attention from the corner of his eye.

“Hey! You! Stop!” he called as he moved to follow the strange movement.

It was on now. She pulled her companion fast; she had to get them out of here as soon as possible now. The only advantage they had was that she knew this building well enough to duck through it whereas their pursuer did not, and that he was more than willing to let himself get dragged away. When they reached the back entrance though, it was chained shut from the outside much like the front door had been. Jessica tried to ram into the door, but it didn’t seem to make much difference.

Now Ben reacted fast, his spider sense screaming at him at how close his former teammate was getting to them. He grabbed and now yanked the girl into an opened doorway, away from the direct line of sight. The initial yank had caught her off guard, but she immediately pulled away once they were in the room. That was fine though, it gave him a moment to try to figure out what to do.

This looked like a break room. A sink and fridge were along one wall, a half broken table, an old empty vending machine, and…a window! They both saw it at the same time, and again exchanged words with their eyes, knowing that was their way out of there.

He went to the window, trying to open it without shattering it and giving away their location sooner than necessary. While he did that, she covered him by watching the door, that vending machine having given her an idea, should it come to that.

The seconds passed, the footsteps got ever closer. She chanced a glance back, seeing her companion had made no headway with the window. They were going to need to smash it, they both new that, it was the only way at this point. Just as Ben went reaching for an abandoned metal thermos to use, their follower came into the doorway, having at last caught up to them. 

Her eyes met with his; recognition flickered a second too late,

“Hey, you’re that g-”

Meanwhile, Venom had heard Powerman’s yelling and had rushed back to follow his friend, should he require backup. As he managed to catch up at last (there really were too many desks to go around), he saw a vending machine come flying out of a doorway and smash his friend back into the opposing wall.

“What the heck??!!”

As Jessica had thrown the machine at the hero, Ben had smashed the widow to their freedom (and had missed Venom’s yell). He cleared away the glass fast and climbed the window sill. The fall wasn’t that far, but he knew Luke wouldn’t let them go that easily and that a vending machine to the face wouldn’t slow him don for long. He was running on instinct at this point, so without thought, he jumped out and shot a web line. It made it’s connect far above and he started to swing up high.

Jessica rushed to the window to follow suit, not realizing the full extent of his exit plan. As she looked out and didn’t see her companion on the ground below, she was confused for a moment. But then a web line came flying at and connecting with her back.

Luke managed to tear his way out of the vending machine that tried to crush him, with very little help from Flash. He tried to scramble to the doorway, but the last thing he saw was the backside of that girl go out the window. He rushed to the window, looking both down and up, searching for her or whatever had grabbed her. Flash was fast with him, but admittedly lost for the moment.

“Dude, what happened there?”

“I don’t know. It was that girl, and she-”

“A girl threw a vending machine at you??”

“She’s not a normal girl. She’s…I don’t know what she is, ok,” he growled, fist clenching but holding back any desires to punch something, “C’mon, we gotta get outside and see if we can find them.”

“Them? There are two girls now?”

“Just go!” he pointed out the window, “I’ll hit the pavement, you get the high ground.”

He probably would have argued that, but Powerman was already rushing for the front door. So Flash did what he was told and went out the window, sending a webline to pull himself higher. 

It was on the upswing though that he caught a flicker out of the corner of his eye of movement; then his spidersense…no, his symbiote started to stab at him, trying to pull him in that direction. It startled him, since the only other time it had done this was when it had tried to track down its missing piece that had become Carnage. At the risk of loosing his ride mid flight, he did as it wanted and followed its pull.

He would not see them though, because as much as the symbiote seemed to be pulling him towards them, Ben’s spidersense was screaming nonstop. Jessica was clinging to his side as he propelled them with each new webline; the strains it drew on his muscles after so long not using them in this way. It didn’t even dawn on him to worry about the line running out until it happened. He missed a step forward, and they began to fall. Quickly he tried the other wrist, and thankfully that one still had enough webbing to get them to a fire escape, despite the wrenching pain it tore through his bicep.

Now on firm ground (or you know, a fire escape), Jessica took over their running plan. The closest window she could jimmy open she did, and she reached to pull her friend in after her.

That was what Agent Venom saw, a blue hoodied figure being pulled into a building from a fire escape, before his own webline gave out. He didn’t even have time to react to that as he fell three stories into a dumpster. The impact was hard, and he groaned, but nothing felt broken. The symbiote still felt agitated, but now it seemed like it had lost whatever it had been after.

“Ow…not cool buddy,” he groaned, trying and failing to move to get up. Maybe he should just stay lying in the garbage for a while, that seemed like a good plan…

Meanwhile, back in the building Jessica had pulled Ben into, the two were ducked below the window pane, panting, and waiting. The apartment was lived in, but seemed to be empty for the moment. She wasn’t sure how long they should wait; there was no telling if that guy was still following them or not. The moments ticked by; they needed to move, before either that guy found them, or the owner of this place did. They had to keep moving.

She chanced a peek up over the window sill, but the coast seemed clear. After a more tentative look, she climbed back out the window and took another look, still finding nothing. Maybe, just maybe they were in the clear. Maybe they had gotten away with it this time.

“Reilly, c’mon,” her first words were still a whisper, just on the off chance there was someone at hand who would over hear.

His spidersense was still on high alert, his body was still in agony, but he still took her hand as a help up. 

The two of them climbed down the fire escape, landing back on solid ground in the alley way below. She checked the street one more time, and then they both started to fast walk out of there. They couldn’t go too fast or they’d draw attention after all. Several streets down though, he couldn’t go any farther.

“Jess…”

“Shh, not yet,” she bit back, still watching their surroundings, completely missing the problems her partner were having, “We gotta get back to the spot, then we can talk.”

“I can’t…”

“What do you mean you…oh god.”

She finally took a good look at him. He was several feet behind her, having stopped and leaned against a wall when he first spoke. His body was still in pain, but the muscle aches were nothing compared to the stabbing pain in his abdomen. He was nearly doubled over, but that wasn’t the worst of it. There was blood, from where wasn’t very clear right now, but the fact that there was blood seeping through the bottom edges of his hoodie was not a good sign no matter the cause.

“Ok, no, I got this. We got this. Just stay with me Reilly, ok,” she moved to hook his arm over her shoulders, to help support his weight. “Just let me get my bearings, and we can get you help, you just got to stay with me.”

But it wasn’t any use. The pain was just too much in his body and on his head. Something was immeasurably wrong, and he couldn’t take it. The world started to go out of focus, her presence was barely felt, her words not registered. Then finally everything went black.


	2. Part 2

Sometimes you had to stop and wonder just how desensitized the locals of New York were to the fact that a secret spy organization and super heroes were based out of the city. Because, pretty much anywhere else in the country-the world even, when more than one non-descript black van filled with half a dozen black suited agents apiece pull up to the long abandoned local police station where two costumed heroes were waiting, would have been a strange sight. But here, in New York, nope; it was pretty much on par with the mailman forgetting to wear pants as he walks the halls of your apartment building.

That’s where they were though. After Luke had been unable to pick up the thieves’ trail, and after he had pulled Flash out of a dumpster (quite unceremoniously), he had called in a sweeper team. He didn’t know what was going on, but if there had been a security beacon at this place, there had to be a reason; and if that strange girl had been after whatever is was there for, well then, that meant a big problem.

“I still can’t believe you lost them,” he mumbled for the umpteenth time.

Flash rolled his eyes from behind his mask, crossing his arms, “I already told you, it was a freaky fluke thing. Totally not my fault.”

“Yeah, and if they got some sort of doomsday weapon, I’m totally blaming you in the report.”

“Oh c’mon, you’re just mad that you lost that girl.”

“I-she-look, I told you she’s not normal. She’s enhanced somehow, and obviously her companion is too if they were able to pull a Spidey escape. For all we know, they’re working for Ock, more of his little “creations” like Scarlet was.”

Flash stiffened at that, and Luke realized his mistake a second too late, but at the moment he wasn’t going to apologize for it. He had a strong point; feelings aside, the facts did support it. Thankfully one of the field agents came up to give his report, diffusing the tension between the heroes before it could mount fully.

“Sirs, we’ve finished the sweep and everything seems to be in the clear. It looks like the perpetrators only accessed the records room. The security beacon has been reset, so we’re going to clear out.”

“Did they take anything?”

“We didn’t find anything initially…”

“Why was there a beacon here anyways?” Flash spoke up now, “I mean, it’s an old police station, what’s so special?”

“Uh…” the agent looked on his tablet, “The file doesn’t really say.”

“They had to be here for some reason.”

“They looked like street kids, maybe they were just looking for a place to sleep?”

Powerman shot the symbiote warrior a hard look for that, but he continued speaking to the agent, “Just do another sweep for anything missing alright.”

It was clear that the agent really didn’t think that was the best use of time, but since the teenager did technically outrank him, he agreed and went back to inform his team that they weren’t leaving yet.

“So, can we go now?”

“Yeah, you should go. You’re not really helping out here are you.”

Venom glared at his companion for that, but didn’t argue. He really didn’t feel like fighting with his own team, so it was just better to take the out now. After all, maybe some air would help him figure out what had happened too.  
\---  
The first sense to return was smell, which made the scent of iodine very sharp and none too pleasant. It was enough to shock the rest of his system awake though; iodine meant medical or laboratory, and deep seeded instincts screamed that that was dangerous. Ben jerked up, sitting for just a second before he did a calculated roll off of the examination table to land into a careful crouch. The panic had to be pushed aside; he needed to be calm to figure out what was going on.

The last thing he remembered was passing out on the street, Jessica at his side. They’d been investigating an abandoned police station, when someone…Powerman had found them. They’d tried to get away, and then in a panic he’d gotten them out by web swinging, until that had given out. They’d managed to escape capture somehow though, and then came the darkness…and blood…

At that memory he now took stalk of himself. Everything seemed to still be where he’d left it, though now he was clean and dressed in a set of hospital scrubs. A quick look around found his clothes draped over a chair in a corner. The rest of the room looked similar to an examination room, though not hospital quality; maybe it was a street clinic, after all, his companion couldn’t have moved him far after he passed out.

Finding no obvious signs of surveillance in the room (who cared if it would count as an invasion of privacy, these days that meant nothing after all), he slowly got up from the crouch, one hand resting on the examination table for support, while the other went to his middle for both protection and reassurance that the baby was still there and safe. He went for his clothes, finding only them, not his backpack filled with files. Jessica must have that, which hopefully meant she wasn’t far off. 

Right now, he needed to figure out a plan to get out of here. Not knowing where he was wasn’t helpful at all, but was not a deterrent. There were plenty of reasons why he had refused medical attention up to this point, too many physical discrepancies he did not want to explain. Not to mention there was no telling if this clinic was connected to S.H.I.E.L.D. at all, or even if the organization had access to medical records; his file would surely alert some red flag or another. He had no idea how long he’d been here either, so that just made leaving even more desirable and necessary.

Just as a hand touched the clothes, he heard the first click of the door opening. Reflexively he grabbed the clothes and jumped up to cling to the wall, as close to the ceiling as he possibly could; maybe if whoever this was didn’t look up he’d be ok. Some young woman dressed in scrubs similar to what he’d been dressed in came in, focused on the chart in her hands. When she finally looked up, all she found was an empty room. It took another few moments as she double checked the charts on her clipboard, but she did leave without further inspection. As the door clicked shut, he let out the breath he’d been holding before dropping back down to the floor. 

Now he had to move quickly before they figured out the mistake. His jeans were still blood stained, and as much as that sight struck fear in his core, he had to push that away to deal with later; it also meant the jeans were useless to wear out if he wanted to remain unnoticed. So he ditched those in the medical waste trash bin, pulled on his own shirt and hoodie over the scrubs, slipped on the worn sneakers, and went for it. The hallway outside the door was small with only four doors, two on either side of it, but relatively empty at least. He quietly closed his door behind himself, and then moved for what he assumed was the exit.

The waiting area was a grand contrast to the hallway. There were people everywhere, though it was not overly crowded. One nurse sat behind a desk, helping people with paperwork and maintaining a check-in sheet, while another was doing some basic first aid to a group slightly off to the side who didn’t need major medical care. He still made sure to keep his hood closed close, despite no one giving him a second look. The reception nurse did notice him, but thought nothing of it, only calling the next person on her check-in sheet, only assuming that there was room in the back for them now. 

It took him a second look to spot his friend sitting in the waiting area, backpack on her lap as she waited on news about him no doubt. He moved stealthily, coming up behind her seat. His hand o her shoulder made her stiffen, but before she could chew him out for it he spoke low,

“I’m leaving; if you’re coming you have five seconds.”

“Ben??”

He was gone by the time she spun around though, halfway to the exit of the building. She scrambled fast, gathering her belonging, shouldering both packs, racing to follow him. The street had enough foot traffic going on at this time of day that it did take her a few moments to spot the familiar faded blue hood in the crowd, but the good thing about Jessica Jones was that she wasn’t shy about making people move out of her way, so it didn’t take much effort to catch up to him, especially when there was a crosswalk to wait for.

“Ben, are you ok? What did she say?”

“How could you,” he hissed.

“Excuse me?”

He still wasn’t looking to her, his gaze focused on the walk signal, trying to will it to change faster. “You’ve been trying to force me to go a clinic for weeks, and I told you under no circumstances was that an option.”

“Reilly, c’mon, you can’t be biting my head off about this,” his silence at that just made her concern start to melt into anger, “Are you kidding me? You scare the living daylights out of me, making me think that you’re dying, and I’m the bad guy for taking you somewhere to get help??”

“Well I’m not dead.”

“Yeah, but you’re obviously not ok,” she bit back, “I bet you didn’t even talk to anyone, did you?”

“Wow, you really are an ace detective Jones.”

She growled now, grabbing his upper arm just as the light changed, “We’re going back, and you are going to get checked out.”

“Like hell I am,” he snapped, wrenching free from her grasp, “I can handle this myself.”

“Obviously you can’t if you’re still playing superhero. You have to stop thinking about how things only affect yourself.”

“Oh right back at you,” he snapped.

The light had changed again at this point, so they were virtually alone on the street corner for the moment; again, the citizens of New York knew to keep to their own business, and had just moved around the arguing teenagers without paying attention to what they were saying.

“This is all your fault.”

“Oh right, because I took you for medical help when you were bleeding?? I am such a bad guy.”

“No-yes-but that’s not the start of this. You, who preaches about staying off of the radar, just had to go and get yourself noticed.”

She took a look around, now concerned that their argument might draw attention. “We’re not doing this here,” she hissed warningly.

“Oh, why not, they’re probably watching us anyways. They’re spies Jones, they do that,” he growled.

“No, not here,” she hissed again, trying to grab his arm again, “We’re going home, we’ll talk there.”

“Don’t touch me,” he pulled away again, “I can get there by myself. I can take care of myself. I don’t need you.”

The signal switched again, and he took the opportunity to go with it. She was still angry about what had just happened, but the concern was starting to worm its way back into her mood. Still, the spider was angry too and it would be easier to talk once they’d both wound down a bit…hopefully. So she let him go, and didn’t follow. Instead she turned and went back the way she’d come; if he wouldn’t see a doctor, then maybe she could arrange a house call.  
\---  
Once again, Peter found Flash in the low-tech gym, taking out his frustrations on a punching bag, well away from the prying eyes of anyone else.

“You know, a secret hide out stops being a secret when other people keep popping up,” the blonde huffed as he gave the object of his attention a final 1-2 slam before catching it so it wouldn’t rebound to hit his friend, “You’re making me think I need to put up a “Keep Out” sign or something.”

“I heard about what happened today.”

He frowned at that, “Oh what, Luke went and tattled about how I’m a sucky field agent now, and I let the suspects get away.”

“That’s not the part I’m talking about, not exactly…well not in that context.”

“Just spit it out Parker,” he moved for his gym bag, going for his towel and water.

“You said in your report that the symbiote “acted funky”?”

“So you’re proof reading my reports now? Dude, I did pass English, barely, but a D- is still a pass.”

“Flash, c’mon, you know I’m not here to chew you out,” he sighed a little at that, “I’m just concerned. If the symbiote’s still acting strange, maybe it’s not fully recovered…”

“I got checked out by Connors when I got back to base, it’s in the report. He said its fine, that I’m fine, so don’t sweat it.”

“You sure?”

“Can’t a guy just have a bad day? Or make a mistake?” he didn’t mean to growl that, but it still came out with his full frustrations in his tone “Go talk to Luke about why he’s so hung up on that chick. If the guy wants to get laid so badly, tell him not to do it on company time.”

“I…what?”

Flash just shook his head, shouldering his bag. “Forget it.”

“Flash, no, c’mon,” he caught his arm loosely as the blonde tried to push past him to leave the room, “I just wanted to make sure you were ok, because you’re my friend. And we’re a team, and team members look out for each other, right.”

“Yeah,” he begrudgingly gave, having a spark of guilt now for snapping at the brunette earlier, “But really, I’m fine, so just drop it.”

Peter didn’t really believe that, he never believed that. Something was bothering the blonde, but until he admitted it, there was nothing anyone could do to help.

“So…do you want to come over for dinner? May’s making some vegan meatloaf thing.”

“Thanks but, I’ll pass. The caf food here is better than that soy stuff, no offense.”

“I know. I was hoping if you came we could smuggle enough burritos in.”

Flash did crack a slight smile at the joke there; May’s healthy food wasn’t that bad. That seemed to help ease Peter’s mindset a bit because he now let go of his arm (even though he could have freed himself of the grasp at any point in time).

“You’re on your own Parker, but do tell her I said hi.”

Peter nodded, and Flash finally took his out of both the room and conversation.

Honestly though, he wasn’t fine. He thought he was dealing with everything after the Hellicarrier fall out, but earlier, it was like he was being slammed with it all over again. Not to mention the symbiote was still being highly agitated; it wasn’t pulling him anymore, but he could very clearly feel that it was restless. Sparring usually calmed it down, but due to the interruption and session being cut short, it was still antsy. And that feeling just made him itch in his skin, like he used to when he first bonded with the entity; it was like they were out of sync for some reason.

He made it back to the sleeping quarters, finding it empty thankfully. He dropped his gym bag and started to fish in his assigned drawer under his bunk for some non-sweaty clothes to change into.

“I just wish you’d tell me what was up,” he mumbled to himself, sifting through various clothing items.

There was a sudden sharp stabbing in his head at that. He didn’t yell out at it (at least he didn’t think he did), but the sensation was completely alien. It did send him reeling back a bit, rocking and falling off the balls of his feet so he ended up sitting on the floor rather than crouched in front of his drawer. The feeling stabbed again; his hands went to hold his head as if pressure would help alleviate the pain.

“What are you-”

He was getting flashes of sensory memory. The sound of water, the feeling of wetness, the smell of steam and…and something else he couldn’t place, but it felt…familiar. Hearing the water before feeling it, feeling alone then with something warm, something hard. Something was wrong, but that scent, it just pulled…so much heat…

And as sharply as it started it ended. Flash could finally open his eyes, and a second later the rest of his senses caught up. He was on the floor in the barracks, laying curled up now rather than sitting. He slowly sat up as the fog in his head tried to clear, as he tried to cling to the feelings he’d just had, but they were fading just as quickly as the fog.

“What the…what was that all about??” he snapped.

But there was no answer. He was alone. The symbiote seemed to have quieted down, like it was satisfied that it had done as it was asked, but he still felt it twitch a bit.

It didn’t help though; if anything it just made him more confused and frustrated. There was something the symbiote knew that he didn’t? That was not a comforting though; in fact it was terrifying. Could it really do stuff without him knowing? That’s what all the S.H.I.E.L.D. doctors had worried about when he first bonded with it, but he’d proven he had full control since then, hadn’t he? But if he was loosing control…that thought scared him. And if the symbiote couldn’t feel that, then maybe they really were horribly out of sync, and maybe that was why it could now control him…


	3. Part 3

Ben hated everything, everyone, and most of all himself. He hated that Jessica had gotten onto S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar with whatever her little project involving Oscorp files was (that she hadn’t told him what they were working on also made him mad). He hated that she had done the one thing he told her never to do which was take him to a doctor. He hated her for not realizing that all of that was bad. But he also hated himself for running out of that clinic…

He was in their bathroom, back at the apartment the two teens were squatting in. Yes, in a dramatic teen drama fashion, he stormed into their apartment and locked himself in the bathroom, not knowing when his friend would come back. It was ridiculous and juvenile, he knew that, but didn’t care…well, mostly didn’t care. It was just another thing to hate about himself.

He hated his body; this unnatural, altered body that had betrayed him so much. His powers were all but useless, his few articles of clothing were starting to not fit, and pretty soon he was sure he’d start to need to think about wearing some sort of bra (Jessica had jokingly pointed that out the other day, which only made him realize she was right). This wasn’t him, it all felt so…unnatural, but since it was happening, that had to be false. If his biology hadn’t betrayed him…no, if that madman Ock had never done this to him…

No, going down that rabbit hole of anger wouldn’t help right now. He looked away from his reflection in the mirror, and down at himself. He still hated his body, but it was all he had now, so he just had to make the best of it. He was tougher than he looked, so a little bit of blood shouldn’t have mattered right? He’d survived the Hellicarrier crash after all; the baby had survived the crash, so a little web swinging shouldn’t have hurt them that badly, could it?

“C’mon,” his voice was barely above a whisper, a hand sliding protectively over his stomach, “Just be ok. I know I’m a screw up, but…”

“Reilly!”

Jessica was back finally it seemed. The hand dropped away, going back to the sink edge with the other to brace himself. His anger started to bubble back up.

“I know you’re here,” a few moments later she was banging on the bathroom door, “Open up idiot, we gotta talk.”

“Oh you bet we do,” he growled going and tearing the door open.

There was never a more dangerous standoff. They were similar in height, and their tempers were also pretty well matched.

“Look Ben-”

“What were you thinking!”

“Excuse me?”

“No, there is no excuse,” he bit back, “What were you thinking??”

“Oh gee, I don’t know, that my friend was possibly going to bleed out due to a miscarriage?”

He stuttered to a stop for a second there, but then he was right back on the fury train, “Not that, though we’ll get back to that. I’m talking about this “project” of yours.”

“I told you, that’s need to know.”

“And you don’t think I should know? First you steal Oscorp files, and then you break into a place that S.H.I.E.L.D. has monitored? What is going on?”

“Hey, I didn’t know S.H.I.E.L.D. was anywhere near this, ok.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re near whatever this is.”

She growled, but she tore away from the stand off and went to her backpack. He followed slightly, going around his couch intending to sit until she threw the files they’d stolen from the police station on the piece of furniture.

“Couple years back, a bunch of street kids went missing ok. I was new on the scene, but I heard stories about this guy offering kids money to do some sort of drug trials for some company.”

He moved the files enough to sit and started sifting through them as she spoke.

“The cops didn’t buy the story, figured they just left town. I didn’t buy that, so I put out feelers to my contacts on a regular basis trying to catch a lead. When I heard rumor about Oscorp doing a file purge, I got a guy to run a search on a couple names I had and if anything matched, he’d get me a copy of the files before they got dumped.”

“And these,” he meant the folders.

“I only knew about 3 or 4 potentials, but the Oscorp file has about a dozen,” she was pulling out her laptop now, taking a seat on the other end of the couch, “So I wanted to pull the hard copies to cross reference and see if any of the missing person’s reports matched the subject list I got.”

“That doesn’t explain why S.H.I.E.L.D. was there.”

“Like I said, I didn’t expect that. If I had, we would’ve done that smarter I swear.”

“I know,” and truthfully he did, so the flames of rage were starting to go down.

“I guess we lucked out that they didn’t send anyone better to investigate, or we’d be in lock up by now huh?”

“They were probably on patrol and picked up the alert,” he found himself mumbling, still flipping through files.

“I take it you knew them then?”

“I’m not talking about that,” he hissed a little, the anger daring to reignite.

“Fine,” she huffed a bit, “You going to talk about what happened at the clinic then?”

“I told you no doctors.”

“I thought you were loosing the baby.”

“I survived crashing a giant air ship in the bay.”

“Ben, c’mon. who knows what’s going on in there, you gotta take care of yourself.”

“We’re homeless, living in an abandoned apartment that we could get kicked out of any day, living off of doughnuts and coffee and bad chili, and now we potentially have an international spy agency after us because you’re hacking a millionaire company’s data base.”

“Correction, I paid a guy to hack…but I get the point you think you’re making.”

“No the point I made.”

“I wouldn’t take you to someone I didn’t trust ok. I get that things are tricky with this, but you needed help, and I can barely manage putting a band aid on a paper cut.”

He didn’t answer, just moved onto another couple files, flipping through them. She gave it an extra beat for him to respond, but when none was offered, she looked away from her laptop and squarely to him,

“Come back to the clinic with me tonight. I got a guy there, it’ll be quick I promise.”

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“How can you be sure though?”

“I…” he was going to push back with another excuse, but the file he’d just opened made the thought die on his lips. He knew this name; he now had an idea why S.H.I.E.L.D. was involved. “Bring up the leader on the file you swiped.”

“Don’t go changing the subject, this will wait. I’m more worried about you.”

“Just do it Jones, if it says what I think it does we’ll go, alright?”

She just shook her head, but opened up the correct file tabs. He crowded a little closer, needing to read it for himself.

“Says Otto Octavius. That mean something to you?”

“Means everything,” his tone was hard; he slid the file he had onto her keyboard for her to see as he pointed to the corresponding photo in the file, “That’s Adrian Tomes.”

“Ok,” she glanced over the file quickly, “Rich kid with health issues and a suspected drug problem, figured he was a runaway. Aside from the fact that he’s in the file too, should the name mean something to me?”

“He’s the Vulture.”

“He’s…the green bird guy?”

He nodded. “Ock made him, like he made me.”

“I…wait, what?”

This was a huge breakthrough though. Ben’s lack of memory was finally explained, or at least had a reasonable possibility. Ock had been taking street kids to experiment on. He remembered some things, but not everything (like his real name); could Ock have messed with his memories when he’d turned him into a spider? He’d done so to Vulture after all…

Jessica closed her laptop and got up, “C’mon.”

“What? Where? Why?”

“You said you’d go back to the clinic.”

“I…yeah…but…”

He wanted to stay and look through the rest of the files, both hard and digital. If his name was in any of those, he needed to know. He needed to know who he was; he needed to know why this was done to him.

But Jessica Jones was not a girl to argue with, and she had that look. The files would still be here when they returned…hopefully.  
\---  
Claire Temple was just your average medical student from Harlem. She took the train daily to get to this particular clinic, because it was the only place close enough to her home that she could log her training hours in for school. Just one more year and she’d have her nursing degree if everything went according to plan. Of course, with all the super heroes running around this city, it had never been in her plans to offer her medical services to those of the costumed vigilante crowd. But do someone in a red leather jumpsuit that you find stabbed a favor once and suddenly you’re on every powered person trying to stay under the radar’s speed dial when they needed a band aid or some bactine.

It was sheer luck that she’d been on duty at the clinic earlier when one of her regulars brought her friend in passed out. Now though, she was starting to regret agreeing to stay late at the same regular’s request, claiming she could drag her friend back after he booked it out of there. That had been hours ago, and even though she was a med student, she still had a life after all.

“Oh you aren’t closing up shop on us already, are you?”

She had nearly gotten the door locked, the last security code typed in to officially close the clinic for the night, when the all too familiar voice came out of the shadows behind her.

“Jones,” she groaned a little, “You do realize I’m missing Dancing with the Stars, and tonight’s Simon William’s night.”

“Thought that’s why they invented DVR.”

“I’m a broke med student, you really think I can afford DVR,” she sighed but unlocked the door, going in and holding it open for them, “Well, you coming in or what?”

It took an extra second as Ben was still somewhat hesitant to go through with this, but Jessica wasn’t giving him any outs this time; she grabbed his arm and dragged him right on in through the empty reception area towards the examination rooms. The whole place seemed even more forbidding in the empty darkness; Claire flicking on lights in the secluded room didn’t help ease him at all.

“Just sit here,” she said, shrugging off her coat, tossing it onto the chair in the corner, “I’ll go get your file.”

He shot his companion a look once the other left the room. “File? See what I mean.”

“Oh relax,” she hopped up on a counter to sit, “She’s discreet Reilly, honest. Can’t tell you how many times she’s pulled glass and splinters out of me, and I haven’t been found out yet.”

“Yet being the key word,” he mumbled, refusing to sit on the examination table.

Claire came back now, clipboard in hand. “You can take a seat you know.”

“I’d rather stand, thanks.”

“And I’d rather you sit, if you want me to finish my assessment.”

He looked to Jessica, who offered no help what so ever. She certainly had the “doctor voice” down packed, as well as the disapproving stare as she waited for him to follow her instructions. He finally relented and sat on the table, though he clearly was not happy about that.

“That’s better,” she pulled over a stool and sat across from him now, going back to her chart and her training, “Ok, I need you to answer a few questions for me Mr. Doe, that you weren’t exactly in the best condition to answer earlier.”

“Mr. Doe?”

“You’d rather I put your real name on here?”

“Ben’s fine,” he mumbled.

“Alrighty, Ben Doe it is,” she scribbled down the note, “Jessica said you two were running, when you suddenly stopped and passed out?”

“More or less…” he chanced a glance at the girl who just gave a half hearted shrug.

“And you were bleeding.”

He shifted a little uncomfortably at that, both at the thought that she had seen him undressed, as well as what that amount of blood meant. Out of reflex one hand slid over his stomach, as if holding it would ensure the safety of what was within.

“Do you know how far along you are?”

“Should be roughly 14 weeks, give or take a day or two.”

She nodded, jotting that down as well. “Well, without probing into anymore in depth personal questions about your…unique qualities…”

“Are you referring to my anatomy or my powers?”

She shot him a slight look over her chart, and he actually found himself biting back any further snarky remarks he might think to have.

“I’d say you’re under weight and slightly dehydrated for someone in your condition. I know living on the street can be rough, and Jess told me about your aversion to doctors of any sort, but that’s not really enough of an excuse. I’m going to get you some prenatal vitamins, but that’s not a substitute for eating healthy, you got that?”

He nodded, “So, I’m still pregnant then? The bleeding, it wasn’t…”

“Not as far as I can tell. It sounds ridiculous, but from the fast examination, I think what you had was just very heavy spotting. I’d like to do an ultra sound to make sure, but I can’t exactly run that by myself. You really have to come back in the daylight hours for that.”

He was less than enthusiastic at the prospect at that.

“Don’t worry, it can be only you and me in the room, but I just can’t get it going now.”

“I get it.”

She nodded now, “Like I said, your unique qualities might have just made the spotting seem worse than it really was. What other things were you feeling before you passed out? Has this happened to you before?”

He shifted again, “Not to that much of an extreme…the last few times I…“ran”,” she could tell the air quotes around that, “I got some major cramping, and then I was unable to…“run” for several weeks. I figured it was connected, so I’ve been trying not to…“run”, but today…”

“Just reacted without thinking,” Jessica finished for him, “You know, if you’d told me you couldn’t do that…”

“I have, multiple times,” he glared at her.

“Oh…right. I forgot. But I didn’t make you do it.”

“If the peanut gallery would be quiet or leave,” now Claire shot the girl a glare.

The brunette just lifted up her hands in surrender and then buttoned her lip.

“Ok, where were we,” she flipped back on her notes, “Right. So, I take it you “ran” harder and farther today than you had the previous times that involved the cramping?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then yes, don’t do that if you can help it. I’m still pretty sure the bleeding was just some very heavy spotting though.”

“There was a lot of blood,” they both glared at Jessica again for that, “What? I’ve gotten stabbed; I know what a lot of blood looks like.”

“It looked far worse than it was. I handled the cleanup, don’t worry.”

“I’m starting to see that.”

She nodded slightly, writing a few more things on her sheet. “So, I think that’s all we can do for right now. I’ll get those prenatal vitamins, and I’ll go add your name to the appointments tomorrow for an ultra sound.”

“Yeah, ok.”

She nodded one more time, then she was up and out. Jessica slid off of her perch now and came over to hop up onto the examination table next to Ben.

“No arguing about coming back tomorrow?”

“I do care about this baby Jessica. I do…I do want it. I don’t mean to act like I don’t, it’s just…”

“I know,” she hooked her arm around his shoulders, drawing him into a comforting half hug, “Sorry I got you into this.”

“Next time I’ll hold it against you.”

“Deal.”

Claire came back at that moment then, small pill bottle in hand. Both of the room’s occupants slid off from the examination table now, knowing that their business was nearly complete and they’d get out here shortly.

“Here you go,” she handed them to him, “You need to take one of these with each meal. I don’t think they’ll mess with your hormones, but that’s something we’ll have to check in a few weeks.”

“So this is going to be a regular thing then.”

“I’m not a neonatal nurse, it’s not even remotely near my field, so unless you’d rather I refer you to someone else…”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know. So tomorrow, around 2 o’clock”

“I’ll be here.”

“Good. Now both of you get out, I’d like to go home.”


End file.
